Mick expected Beth to check on him. He expected the hand that she placed on his shoulder. What he did not expect was how much he relaxed the moment she touched him. He looked over his shoulder and she tried to give a small smile. He looked back into the night.
"You're not going to convince me, you know." Beth came closer to him. He could feel her breath against his neck. He could not stop his being from completely disarming. It was if he was melting, and he did not like the vulnerability. It was like the first time that he held her. He had denied touch from another person for so long, and then out of gratitude she hugged him. It was all over then. He knew what he had been missing.
"No, I know that." She stood in front of him. "You're going to convince yourself." He looked at her confused. "Mick, I am already in danger, the people you care about are already in danger. If you don't help Katherine it's not going to change that." He walked to other side of the porch and faced away from her. She waited patiently for him to speak again.
"You don't understand." Mick said quietly. He could not think of what the possibilities could hold if he decided to agitate these people. It might not change the fact Beth was in danger, but surely if he helped piss the Bloodline off then that would be digging her grave.
"Yes, I do Mick. I'm in danger all the time with my job." Mick turned promptly around and came with in a foot of her.
"No, Beth this is different. These aren't people who don't want to get interviewed or reported on. These are monsters that are stronger, faster, and smarter than you. They have been around for centuries. They will literally eat you for dinner, Beth." She couldn't help her mouth from gaping of how graphic and unrestrained he was. She took a deep breath and then looked back up to him.
"Is that what you see yourself as, Mick? A monster?" He scoffed and then gave a small smile as if to dismiss her. There she was looking for emotional edge on the story.
"You just don't get it." He made a move to walk away, but she reached out and held him place.
"Okay, so maybe I don't understand what I'm getting myself into asking you to help. Maybe I have no idea about this dark world that you are from, but then neither do you." He stared at the floor. She brought her hand up to his face and made him look at her.
"You're not a monster, Mick. But if you don't help her stop these people from killing people and turning people against their will, you will be." Her eyes were so honest and they took no prisoners. She left him on the porch and went back into the house.
She knew what was right, even if it meant it put her in danger. He knew what was right, but he couldn't put some one in a position that they did not ask for. He could have never turned someone against their will. What Coraline had done to him all those years had changed not only who he was physically, but in every way. He could rarely trust, and when he did he treasured it almost to a fault. He knew that sometimes what is hard and what is right is the same thing, but with Beth it was different. He felt responsible for what Coraline had done to her when she was a child. That frightening experience had changed Beth's life completely. How could he not feel responsible? Maybe that was why he kept up with her all these years. Why he kept coming back even though he knew that Coraline was dead. He had watched her grown and become a woman. He marveled at the idea. The child that he saw the night he killed Coraline looked so vulnerable and scared, but yet he could still see that strength there. The resilience and morality this woman had inside of her regardless of being threaten on many levels was astonishing.
And then he looked within himself. He was not scared of what would come for him, or what harm he would suffer. He was a self deprecating kind of person, and often became depressed with the curse he struggled with everyday, but he wasn't scared of death. How long had he expected it or even wished for it? How could a woman in her late twenties who had no advantages over him physically, be so much braver to take a risk for good despite the consequences? He laughed to himself quietly.
Wow, Mick. You really are getting ass kicked by a bunch of girls tonight. He thought comically. Beth was proving to be quite the little moral compass, despite being the head reporter for smutty website. Mick chuckled again.
When he entered Josef's place once more, he saw Josef now completely dressed with Katherine. She was taking the weapons that they had found on the tracker. She picked up the machete and the samurai sword and began visually comparing them
"I think I like the samurai sword better." She said holding it up to Josef. He made an annoyed face.
"You can't take that! I told you that was an antique. It's worth more than your life….well to me at least anyway." Josef insulted. She glared at him for more than a few uncomfortable moments. Josef could not smile or continue with another joke because he was not sure how she was taking his joke. She flung the machete at him. He ducked just in time before it took off his own head.
"Hey!" He shouted as he got back up. She tucked the samurai sword in the tracker's holder and put it on her back.
"Sorry Josef, I was testing how much worth you had. I think the machete won." Beth tried to conceal her laughter, and quieted when she saw Josef giving her a dirty look. She then noticed that Mick was back in the room and smiled. He met her eyes, and gave a small smile. He then turned his attention to Katherine and Josef.
"So what's the plan?" Katherine looked up at him, and then gathered the rest of the things from the tracker.
"It depends on if you are in." She said coming to stand in front of him. He nodded to confirm his answer.
"Good. The more the merrier!" Josef exclaimed.
"Why are you going?" Mick asked. He found his friend's decision conflicting to his earlier attitude of not wanting to be involved.
"Well, you know that whole seeing into the future thing….It kind of really helps business. Stocks are just not the easy to predict anymore." Josef said unapologetically.
"Typical. Tell me Josef when was the last time you exercised your conscience?" Josef thought for a moment and the smiled and placed his hands together.
"Oh yes, I remember. I was 5 years old, and I apologized for trying to drown my younger sister. The little bitch always told on me." He said as if the group should feel sorry for him. Beth rolled her eyes and then approached Mick.
"I'm going with you." Mick looked like he was about to protest. "Look, they will find me if I'm alone and there is no one else who could protect me. Well, not anyone who would believe what they would have to protect me from." Mick looked a little frustrated but then settled with agreeing.
"Fine. You do what I say whenever I say it. You don't need to be involved anymore than you are."
"Oh believe me, after listening tonight and seeing I did not get killed because of it has cemented a new habit. I'm well satisfied with involvement of the lesser kind." Beth stated sincerely. Mick nodded and then looked to Katherine.
"We're going to Florida. I have some followers there." She said as pulled a duffel bag from the porch and loaded the weapons into it.
"Oh Yea! A vampire vacation in the sunshine state! How ironic." Everyone decided to ignore Josef this time and focused on Katherine.
"Do we need to bring something? Pack bags? How long will we be gone?" Beth asked impatiently. Even though she understood that her life was now in peril, she was still a working girl who had to pay the bills. She would need to tell her boss something. Oh, and mentioning to her boyfriend Josh would be good idea, even if that relationship was up in the air lately.
"There is nothing you need to bring. I can buy anything that we do need, and it will take however long it takes" Katherine said simply.
She operated from completely different perspective than Beth. She was much older and therefore had lost the constant worrying over life and all its worries. Well she had no other worries except for worrying about being captured by the Bloodline, which Beth could not even begin to relate to. She had gone through enough to give at least a brief description on what it felt like, and what to do on just about everything. Beth could not imagine being alive so long, but she could imagine what the desire must be to want it.
When she begged Mick that night to turn her, some part of her really meant it. What would it be like to live life outside the box? No lines or barriers that you had grown up with and had been imposed on you, but then what would it be like to be told that you could not have a family or carry a child. Sure Beth was young and still career minded, but she had always dreamed of having children. She could easily fantasize about her wedding and her husband, along with the picket white fence and the mini van parked in the two car garage.
She was like any hot blooded woman, but the world that she was diving into did not validate or allow any of that. The desire she was feeling to be so connected to it was coming from some place dark and primitive. It excited her, but at the same time scared the hell out of her.
Before Beth realized it they were in Mick's car driving to the airport to climb to Josef's private jet. She was going to Florida….with 2 vampires and a hybrid. She could not even rationalize the situation if she tried, and that damn journalist inside her was really trying to. To try and convince herself she tried to imagine she was doing a story. She could see herself holding the microphone interviewing and everything:
"Hi, I'm Beth Turner from Buzzwire, and I am currently riding in a vehicle with Mick St. John a vampire, along with Josef and Katherine, also of the vampire breeding. Tell me Mick, what influenced your decision to allow me to accompany you tonight?"
"Well Beth, when I realized that you could be tortured or murdered because of my involvement with Katherine back there, I just figured it would be a good idea for you to tag along. I mean after all, you seemed to really want to anyway."
"And what about you Josef?"
"Uh, no comment. I would hate to spread the illogical and obviously false report of vampires, but then again if it turns on any of you women out there….I am available for personal investigation."
"Beth!" She suddenly heard her name being called out worriedly by Mick.
"Huh?" She said looking around. Everyone was out of the car and staring at her.
"You okay?" He asked opening her door. She grabbed her bag and stood up.
"Oh yeah, just thinking about the story for the psychic. Oh that reminds me. I better call the office and tell them my grandmother died or something." She said reaching for her phone.
"Yeah, that used to be good one." Katherine said as they started to head to jet on the runway waiting for them. "I think mine died like 7 times, until she really died and then it just wasn't that funny anymore." Josef laughed out loud. Katherine looked over to him seriously.
"I wasn't kidding. I really did love my grandmother." She said as if she was intensely hurt by his insensitivity. Josef gave her a good look over and then tried to stammer an apology. Unfortunately, Katherine could not hold on and started laughing herself.
"Ha! I got you!" She said leaving Josef standing shocked that he had been duped.
"You know what? You sit near the bathroom in back." He said butting in front of her on the stairs up to the jet.